HTC’s CEO Feels 2013 would be a Good Year

HTC's CEO, Peter Chou
Source: htcsource.com

HTC’s CEO Peter Chou accepted an interview from The Wall Street Journal, saying that “the worst for HTC has probably passed. 2013 will not be too bad.”

The interview report was published not long ago. Peter Chow said: 

“Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing. We haven’t done enough on the marketing front.”

2012 was not a good year for HTC. According to bgr.com, the global smartphone market share of HTC in Q3 (3^rd quarter) 2012 is only 4.8 percent. Compared to Samsung’s market share of roughly 31 percent and Apple’s 15 percent, HTC only got a tiny tip, so as BlackBerry with 4.2 percent market share. Even Sony captured some spotlight as it rose over HTC at that time, at 5.1% market share.

As one of the most successful mobile company in 2011, HTC got a slap in the face judging 2012’s market result. Since early 2012, HTC decided to focus on premium devices, introducing the infamous HTC One series and rely very little on marketing. This is a complete opposite to Samsung’s move, which invested heavily in marketing and always readily advertise their products, especially flagship devices like Samsung Galaxy S3. Thus, Samsung gained more market awareness than HTC did.

Hopefully HTC can gain a foothold in 2013 and continue to deliver high quality devices. The newest offering, HTC J Butterfly was sold very well in Japan and even surpassed Apple iPhone 5. This could be a good indicator for HTC to catch up in ever expanding mobile market.

“One thing I’d learned from last year is to act fast and be responsive to market changes. We are being more flexible now. We are constantly fine-tuning our sales plans and position in various markets,” the CEO added in the interview. “Although we don’t have as much money to counter [Samsung and Apple], the most important thing is to have unique products that appeal to consumers.”

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